Related Headlines

FOX NEWS - The Portland chapter of the Satanic Temple has reportedly succeeded in bringing its "After School Satan Club" to an elementary school within city limits.

Finn Rezz, one of two heads of the chapter, told the Oregonian that the organization has been approved to begin its program, which focuses on "science and rational thinking," on Oct. 19 at Sacramento Elementary School.

Rezz previously told the paper that most members of the Satanic Temple are atheists who see Satan as an allegory for free thought, and that the program is intended to promote "benevolence and empathy for everybody."

The purpose, Rezz told the paper, is meant to counter "the Good News Club," an after-school club put on by the Child Evangelism Fellowship, "a Bible-centered organization.

"Across the nation, parents are concerned about encroachments by proselytizing evangelicals in their public schools, and are eager to establish the presence of a contrasting voice that helps children to understand that one doesn’t need to submit to superstition in order to be a good person," the After School Satan Clubs (ASSC) says on its website.

"Our goal, ultimately, is to place an ASSC in every school where the Good News Clubs, or other proselytizing religious groups, have established a presence," it said.